Agrovoltaics, an innovative synergy between agriculture and photovoltaic solar energy production, is an ingenious solution to address the challenges of environmental sustainability and renewable energy production. Although the idea is not recent, it has only gained significant relevance in recent years, attracting the interest of scholars, environmentalists and policymakers.
The agrovoltaic system has its roots in 1982 when Adolf Goetzberger, a German physicist and founder of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), laid the groundwork for an innovative approach that integrates agricultural production with energy production, paving the way for a new way of harnessing the soil to meet food and energy needs.
There are divergent views on the adoption of agrovoltaics. Proponents of this “new” system point to the presence of several advantages: one of them is its ability to promote the adoption of renewable energy sources, thus helping to reduce the use of fossil fuels and their environmental impact.
In addition, this system offers a number of agricultural benefits that take advantage of the combination of energy production and agricultural activities: this approach creates a kind of symbiosis between solar panels and crops, where the panels provide weather protection for the crops below, reduce water stress on the plants, and, through sensors, are able to monitor soil moisture.
In addition, solar panels can be static or equipped with trackers, which makes them able to track the movement of the sun throughout the day. When panels are equipped with trackers, the shadows they cast shift throughout the day, and these changes in light and shade can affect plants in different ways, benefiting their growth.
Despite its many advantages, agrovoltaics also has some important disadvantages to consider. One of the main risks is related to competition for land use. Because agrovoltaic installations require considerable space, they may conflict with land that would otherwise be used for other agricultural activities, and this raises concerns about food security and the availability of land for farming.
Also, according to some, shading caused by solar panels could adversely affect the growth of crops underneath, thus reducing agricultural yield and product quality.
The installation of agrovoltaic plants may also result in a visual impact on the rural landscape. This may generate opposition from local communities and authorities, who may perceive the installations as disfiguring the landscape, and there is also a risk that large investors may monopolize agricultural land to install agrovoltaic installations at the expense of small and medium-sized farms.
In conclusion, to maximize the benefits of agrovoltaics and mitigate the associated risks, it is essential to adopt balanced planning and management approaches that take into account the needs of local communities, the environment, and the economy. So, agrovoltaics can represent an opportunity to integrate agriculture and renewable energy production, contributing to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable future for present and future generations.